Fall Foliage Envy

I've been enviously admiring all the wonderful fall foliage photos posted by other bloggers over the past month.  The color changes that accompany colder weather and shorter daylight hours in northern areas aren't as prevalent in southern California.  However, as I sat on a stationary bike running through my morning exercise routine earlier this week, a mirror in the room caught the reflection of colored leaves outside.  I'd almost forgotten that, in addition to colorful fruit, the persimmon trees on the northwest side of the house produced rather pretty fall foliage.

This is Persimmon 'Fuyu':

The leaves on Persimmon 'Hachiya' are running a little behind 'Fuyu' but the color changes are just as pretty.

The foliage on our Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku') is rapidly turning from yellow to brown.

The ornamental pear (Pyrus calleryana) is just beginning to take on some color but there's little in the way of leaf drop yet.

The toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) is also producing masses of bright red berries, another hallmark of fall here.  This tall evergreen shrub, also known as California holly, was designated as the official plant of Los Angeles last year.  Yes, Los Angeles has its own official plant (as you can read about here).  We lost one toyon as collateral damage when the Eucalyptus tree was removed from the side yard earlier this year but there's another very tall specimen at the border of our property.

I also found some small-scale color changes:

'Bountiful Blue' blueberry

The color change on this Euphorbia 'Dean's Hybrid' may be due to transplant shock rather than a seasonal change but it's pretty nonetheless

Trachelospermum jasminoides

This is fall, southern California style.

Project completed (almost)

My husband and I finally completed the last leg of the flagstone pathway in the side yard this weekend.  He's been busy with a project of his own for the last month but, with that behind him, I was finally able to get his help picking up and laying the additional stone.  To be honest, he did most of the work with the stone.  That rock is heavy!  (And I apparently could use some weight training.)

Stone before "we" dug it into place

When the stone was laid, I began filling in the empty spaces on either side.  Here's what went in this weekend:

• 2 flats of Thymus serpyllum (minus thyme)
• 3 Sisyrinchium bellum 'Rocky Point' (dwarf blue-eyed grass)
• 2 6-packs of Koelaria glauca "Coolio' (blue hair grass)
• Another 6-pack of Papaver nudicaule 'Champagne Bubbles' (Iceland poppy)
• 3 Osteospermum ecklonis '3D Silver'
• 1 6-pack of Armeria maritima 'Nifty Thrifty' (a variegated thrift)

Most of the plants went into the area on the right side of the path.

The new plants, with the exception of the Iceland poppies, were added to the plants installed during an earlier planting frenzy

There are still a few holes to fill here and there on either side of the new path but I probably won't get to that for another week or more.  My hope is that, by spring, the area will look much fuller.

Newly planted area photographed from the front lawn

Photo from the side yard patio

Photo from the backyard lawn

So what so preoccupied my husband that he didn't have time to help with the stone pathway?  He was preparing his beloved electric car for transport to a new owner, our nephew in Washington state.  Those who know my husband also know how important this car was to him.  It was a gas-powered Mazda RX-7, originally owned by my father-in-law, which my husband converted to an all-electric vehicle a little over 20 years ago, doing all the work himself.  The conversion involved, among other things, installation of a new electric engine and 18 batteries.  He replaced all 18 batteries before sending it off to our nephew by truck.  It arrived in Washington this weekend and should be in the hands of its new owner today.  We hope he'll enjoy it as much as my husband did.

The electric car's last ride in California, on its way to the transport truck

Wide Shots: November 2013

I'm participating in Heather's meme at Xericstyle featuring wide shots of the garden on the first day of each month.  This month, I've got pictures of the backyard border, the side yard, and the front yard.  All the photos were taken in the early morning, which means that some were shot into the sun, while others show areas still in shade.

The back border, which I've shown in my previous wide shot posts, is first up.  I've pulled some plants, moved others, and introduced some new selections since last month but there are still some empty spots to fill, as well as other moves to make.

View from the backyard doorway

Side view of the back border from the left side with the plants in the very bright morning light

Back border photographed from the right side

Next up is the side yard, which I've been working on since we finished tearing out the lawn in that area in early September.  We still have to lay some more stone to create a pathway across the area.

View from front lawn area

View from small side yard patio

View from backyard lawn

This month I've also included a photo of the front beds.  I'm afraid there's not much to see there as I recently cut back most of what is in those beds but here you are.

Front yard, still in shade

For Heather's own wide shot, please visit Xericstyle by clicking here.  You'll also find other gardeners' wide views.

My favorite plant this week: Senna (Cassia) bicapsularis

I looked around for a scary plant I could feature in this week's favorite post in a toast to Halloween but I couldn't come up with anything truly sinister (unless you count the mimosa tree that's on a march toward world domination with its relentless self-seeding but I'm tired of giving it attention it doesn't deserve).  Instead, I picked Senna (Cassia) bicapsularis  'Worley's Butter Cream' as my favorite because it finally sprung into bloom just when I'd about given up hope that it would.  Last year, it began blooming in late summer.  I thought that the failure to bloom this September might be due to getting too little water this year.  It was a very dry year and the Senna is planted at the top of the stairs leading down the slope at the back of our property, an area that gets watered haphazardly by hand.  However, in examining on-line sources regarding this tropical shrub, I discovered that it commonly blooms in late fall or winter.  In fact, some of its common names are Christmas Senna and Winter Senna.  So apparently it actually bloomed very early last year and it's blooming somewhat early this year.

It isn't a particularly easy plant to photograph, though.  Its position along the fence between us and our neighbor at the top of the slope stairway makes it difficult to find a good vantage point from which to take a picture.  It has also gotten quite tall - over 7 feet tall at my rough estimate.  It can grow 8-10 feet tall and 6-8 feet wide so its current placement isn't optimal.  I may try pruning it to a more manageable size following the current bloom cycle.

Picture taken from the far end of the dry garden,  In a happy coincidence, the neighbor's Brugmansia, sporting similar floral color, is blooming again on the other side of the fence.

Picture taken from one of the stair steps below the Senna bicapsularis

Taxonomists have yet to agree on whether this shrub should be considered part of the Cassia or Senna genus.  There also seems to be some confusion as to whether or not it should be classified as an invasive plant.  One source holds that its invasive label is undeserved and attributable to confusion between this plant and Senna pendula var. glabrata.  I can only say that, after 2 years in my garden, I've seen no sign whatsoever of rampant self-seeding.

This evergreen plant is native to the northern part of South America and the West Indies.  The bright yellow flowers attract butterflies and bees.  It provides larval food for the Sulphur butterfly.

The flower buds look like small yellow marbles

It prefers regular water, although in my experience it can tolerate a little drought.  Reportedly, it can be grown in USDA zone 8 as a perennial.  It is winter hardy in USDA zones 9-11.  Senna (Cassia) bicapsularis is my contribution to Loree's favorite plants meme at danger garden.  You can check here for her choices for plants of the week.

Oh, and from my home to yours, Happy Halloween!

Fall Planting Frenzy - Part II

What constitutes a planting frenzy?  In my case, it means more than 6 hours in the garden in one day with scarcely a break, preceded by one or more expensive trips to nurseries or garden centers, and followed by exhaustion and painful joints.  It also means doggedly facing unplanned planting obstacles, which in my garden usually means digging out pockets of rock, apparently left over from the 1940s when this property was part of a large quarry.  Sometimes I think I should give up gardening altogether and just go into the rock quarry business.

The planting exercises I described earlier (in Frenzy-Part I) and now here were preceded by trips to 2 nurseries the weekend before last, another one this past Saturday, and a mid-week mail order delivery.  The buying is the easy part - reckoning with one's spouse about one's seemingly out-of-control spending habits can be another matter.  Arguments about the importance of fall planting and the value of planting prior to a forecast of rain don't seem to carry as much weight as they should.  I fully expect to receive one of my husband's infamous pie charts showing how much I've spent on plants this year any time now.

Annie's mail order delivery

My plant purchases from Saturday's trip to Rogers (minus the 2 Phormium and a few other things)

Many of the plants shown above went to fill vacancies in the backyard border created when I tore out a mass of lavender.  I'd also torn out an overgrown patch of common lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina) but, in that case, I'd like to note that no purchases were actually required to fill the area.  I managed this with divisions from Stachys byzantina 'Helen Von Stein' growing elsewhere in my garden and yarrow (Achillea 'Moonshine') relocated from an adjacent area.  (I can only hope the lamb's ear transplants take - they were looking a little bedraggled when I finished.)

Lamb's ear transplants up front with relocated Achillea 'Moonshine' in the upper left 

Nicotiana alata 'Lime Green,' purchased by mail order from Annie's, and Digitalis x mertonensis "Polka Dot Pippa,' obtained from Roger's Gardens, filled in the larger mid-border gap, along with some Euphorbia 'Dean's Hybrid' moved from another area of the border.   A Salvia mexicana 'Limelight' from Annie's was tucked into the back area (in front of the Agapanthus in parallel to the mint bush) just to try it out.

The mint bush is no longer obscured but I hope my new additions gain size quickly so the area doesn't look so bare

Phygelius x rectus 'Salmon's Leap' replaced a Chorizema 'Bush Flame' on the right side of the border; however, now think I could use 1 or 2 more to fill in holes created by moving the Euphorbia.

Phygelius 'Salmon Leap' complements the Abelia 'Kaleidoscope' on either side much better than the poorly performing Chorizema

For the most part, I stuck to my list in making my recent plant selections, at least as long as the Phygelius counts as the "orange flowering perennial" on my list.  However, spouses must forgive the occasional deviation to pick up plants you don't know you need until you see them.  Such was the case with Uncinia uncinata 'Rubra,' a low-growing grass-like plant grown by Annie's but purchased through Roger's Gardens.  Look at the pictures below.  You understand, don't you?

3 Uncinata placed near the front of the border, where they should get the moisture they need

Sure, it's small, but look how the sun already lights up the foliage

I still have vacancies to fill in both the backyard and side yard borders.  I need more Phygelius and perhaps more Euphorbia for the back border, as well as additional succulents and some low-growing grass for the side yard.  Oh, and I think I've found a good space for that Grevillea 'Superb' I've been coveting.  Luckily, my friend and I have rescheduled our nursery trip to Carpinteria for early November...

Fall Planting Frenzy - Part 1

The title of this post suggests that my fall planting frenzy has just begun.  In actuality, it began much earlier.  You could say that it kicked off before the official start of fall when I began planting the area surrounding the new pathway on one side of our house in early September (as described here).  It continued as I began to fill in the expanse of open area on the same side of the house, where we'd removed a large section of lawn (as described here).  I've been haunting nearby nurseries and garden centers ever since looking for the plants on my list for the side yard, as well as plants to fill in vacancies in my backyard border.  To complicate matters, last week, in a fit of disillusionment with the back border, I began tearing out plants there.  It started with this:

3 lavender plants grew together to form a troublesome mass in the middle of the border

I put in 3 lavender plants (Lavandula x heterophylla) in the spring of 2012.  In the fall of that year, I placed a mint bush (Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata') behind them, mainly because space was available.  The lavender plants subsequently grew together to form a single mass, which I saw out the window every time I sat on the couch in the living room.  The mass obscured the pretty mint bush, which began to bug me until, this past week, I tore the lavender out, leaving a big hole.

Space after removal of the lavender mass

This area bi-sects the backyard border, separating the warm-toned plants on the right from cooler-toned plants on the left.  While I haven't come to terms with the perfect planting scheme for that area, I did pick items to fill in the space for now.  Some of these came by mail order and others were picked up at a nursery this weekend.  I'll post on that reconfiguration in the near future.

While I was staring at the backyard border trying to decide what it needed, I reached the conclusion that the left side also needed substantial work.  I've been looking for burgundy foliage plants for that area since my 2 failed attempts to grow a purple-leafed Loropetalum there.  I recently added one Phormium 'Dark Delight' and decided, what the heck, I'd add 2 more.  These went in this weekend, along with some bulbs, 3 society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea) and a new thyme honey myrtle (Melaleuca thymifolia).  The new arrangement required me to dig up and reposition several of the surrounding plants as well.

Left side of border after the addition of 2 more Phormium and some rearranging

Melaleuca thymifolia

I can't say that I'm thrilled with this section of the border yet.  It still looks a bit hodge-podge to me; however, my hope is that its appearance will improve as the plants fill out and grow to their anticipated heights.

Work on the side yard continues as well.  Some of last week's purchases, including the Agave 'Blue Glow,' have been added there, along with Helichrysum italicum, and Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow,' which was moved from a nearby area.

With the exception of the Arbutus, Phlomis, Acanthus, and 2 of the Arthropodium cirratum, everything in this area was recently planted

I still need to add a path through the middle of this space to the backyard beyond but the other side of the area, adjacent to a small patio, is coming together.  I added some Iceland poppy seedlings (Papaver nudicaule) this weekend just because I love them.

All the plants in this area were introduced in late September or October

View of side yard bed from patio area

Fall is unequivocally the best time to plant in my area of Southern California.  It's still warm enough to give roots time to establish but, more importantly, we have a reasonable chance of getting rain.  We got our first rain since March on October 9th.  Although that yielded less than a quarter of an inch of rainwater, another rain event is forecast for today and tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to it.  The view this morning is auspiciously cloudy.

Bouquet: Something from Nothing

Walking through my garden late yesterday afternoon, I didn't see much of anything I thought could be used to construct a bouquet (unless I duplicated the last one I created, which you can see here).  I clipped some short stems off the Lisianthus in the back border anyway, then walked about the garden picking up a piece of this and a piece of that until, voilà!, I had the making of a hodgepodge bouquet.

Here it is:

Front

Back

And here's what I included:

• Angelonia 'Angelmist Dark Pink'
• Lisianthus 'Echo Pink'
• Centranthus ruber
• Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink'
• Leucanthemum x superbum
• Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'
• Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossum'
• Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'
• Salvia leucantha 'Waverly'
• Strobilanthus dyeranus (aka Persian Shield)

Sometimes it amazes me what you can create from seemingly nothing.